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The below is a forum entry made by one of our community members. If you want to know more about your condition, we suggest you read the following article written by a mental health professional on
Lip Picking
severe lip picking
I have been picking my lips my entire life( as long as I an remember) and I'm a 20 year old female. Sometimes I can go a day without doing it, but usually I cant. I do it probably over 100 times a day without even noticing. I dont even realize my hand is up at my lips when it's happening until a few minutes later. My bf gets really upset with me about it and wants me to stop. he doesnt understand that it is so incredibly hard for me to control. Every time he sees me doing it he yells at me. He thinks its going to help and make me stop. It just makes me do it even more when hes not around. I feel like I HAVE to do it, and I can't imagine ever stopping. I can remember so many times when I have sat down and decided I wasn't going to do it anymore. Then about three hours later I catch myself doing it. When i do catch myself, i make myself stop but I start getting extremely anxious and my head starts to hurt if I can't let myself do it. It almost relieves the physical pain I feel when I cant do it. When my bf slaps my hand away, the urge do it becomes so much worse. I feel like im going to go crazy if i cant.
I have literally no idea what to do. I am so tried of my bf getting upset with me over it. He gets really mad everytime I do it, and he doesn't understand that I'm not able to control it. He says i need to replace it with something else. But nothing can replace that. I cannot imagine ever getting over this, but I would give everything I have to never do it again.
Admittedly, I did not read all these entries about lip picking. I read enough to feel hopeless though. Sounds like the overwhelming majority of people have not figured out how to control or stop their lip picking impulse, like me.
I’ve been biting, chewing and picking since before I could talk, my mother tells me. At 8 months old, I would chew my fingers til they bled. Knowing this and being aware, while trapped in this body, of the inescapable and constant urge to pick/bite from the moment I wake until I fall asleep, I am convinced it has more to do with hard-wiring than it does anxiety/stress. I’ve noticed that if I stop biting my finger nails, asi am sometimes committed to doing, it only escalates other urges. My nails can look great at the expense of my lips. If I stop picking my lips, I will literally chew the fingersnails off my hands. Barbaric, I know. I feel like I was born into a war between my teeth and anything they can tear apart. When I was ten, I bit a hole through my cheek to the outside of my face. I got a few stitches and to this day, everyone, including my parents thought I had fallen off the sink while I was brushing my teeth. I was too embarrassed to admit I chewed through my own face.
Right now, my fingers look great but my lips look like I have leprosy. I always pride myself in being a strong willed and determined woman. Hopefully one day, I will actually be able to prove to myself that I am. I miss smiling confidently. I live my life now, trying to avoid any attention. I’m too embarrassed and I know people around me must wonder why my lips always look so raw. I feel like the elephant in the room.
Hey everyone! Like most of you i have struggled with peeling my lips/biting them. I started in middle school maybe and never could stop no matter how much I tried for years.
I wanted to share my journey kinf of ti lend some hope because it is possible to stop and to fully heal.
I picked for a good 10 years everyday all day. I couldnt remeber what normal soft lips felt like because they were always raw,bleeding or scabbed. I had discoloration from old scars and always felt like crap about my lips thinking they woukd never fade.
Today ,I havn't picked in about a year now and my scars have mostly healed leaving almost no discoloration.
The first thing i woudl tell you is to see a mental health specalist.
I've never felt stressed or anxious when picking but this is most definitly a sign of some mental stress. You dont have to be consious of the stresser for it to affect you.
I chose a repitable homeopath to help me find a medicinal remedy to help me but 80% if beating the habit was lifestyle changes.
Overall living healthier, waking up early, excersing eating healthy meals and staying hydrated were just the start. I always ALWAYS kept a mint lip balm on me at all times. I chose mint because if i cheated and picked my lips the mint would burn like hell when i reapplied the balm reminding i fucked up.
Becase for me -like alot of us it was automatic. My hands be just peeling by default all the time. I couldnt tell myslef to stop beacsue i wouldnt realize i was doing it.
At some point i graduated and allowed myslef to get regualr lip balm and that was a small victory for me.
But seriously, ever since i started seeing someone about my mental health and i realized i have had underlying ocd since around the time i started peeling- and i started being more mentally healthy - it has almost eliminated the urge comletely.
I wont lie a year in and i still feel like picking sometimes and its still hard to resist-espescially when something in my life changes but ive managed to stop. I dont know if the feeling ever goes away but you do feel it less, you do heal and CAN stop.
Just wanted to leave that here for someone who is feeling like crap. I remember the feeling too and i wish on days like today when you feel like the worst about it someone woukd have given me hope too.
I am almost 15 and have been picking my lips as long as I can remember... I pick them until there is no skin left to pick, and even then I try to keep going.
The only thing that stops me from pocking is getting my nails done, which I can no longer do due to sporting issues. my lips constantly have scabs and sores and cuts on them due to constant picking. Even as I write this I have to keep stopping for ten seconds to pick. I just want to get over this, because it is really annoying and impacts school and my appearance and makes my lips so dry all the time. What can i do to stop this?
I started picking my lips at the age of 11, I'm not sure how I started or why I did this but for as long as I can remember, it eventually became a habit. Luckily, I only stop once my nails are cut or I'm in a public place, aaaand then I start again once I'm alone. Once I start, I usually do it in my bedroom or sometimes I'll do it when I'm not in control. My lips constantly gets flaky and the second I notice, I'll pick the skin off until there's no skin left to pick. It's very annoying and I don't know how to stop this habit. Although, after I finish, my lips would bleed a bit and I feel bad after doing it. Fortunately, I thought I was the only one who did this and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one. Is there anything I can do to stop?
I’ve been having this skin picking habit since I was just a couple years old…I do it when I’m anxious, upset or even shy…I do it on my lips and the insides of my thumbs right by my nail and it’s really bad I do it to the point where I’m raw and bleeding but just moment later I’m catching myself do it again I can’t control it…as I’m typing this at this point in the comment I’ve caught myself do my lips about 3 times now they are currently completely raw and a little swollen on the bottom because I just go and go and can’t stop, my tolerance for it is handled well because I don’t pay attention to the pain I my mind just sets on doing it and I won’t even notice… it starts hurting after days of being raw and I don’t stop I’m about to be 18 in a few months and I would have liked to be over this a long time ago I would love to know if I have a disorder or if maybe my picking is a mechanism to cope and distract myself from stress or anxiety I’ve been on meds for depression and anxiety and I still always did it so I’m afraid it’s more than a mechanism and not gonna lie for years it bothers me when people ask what Happened and I can’t explain oh it’s nothing I just pull my skin off my lips and thumbs like it’s hard to explain this it’s just something there tbh do I just always say my lips are dry and I could have a record for using Carmex I swear I use about 3 tubes a month and I just use that to try help healing and it would work but o don’t leave them alone long enough for it to do so…this situation is much deeper than just picking it’s just a lot of questions and not understanding and I’d really like to know what causes this impulsive burden to take control over me I’m sick of stopping doing what I’m doing just to do this I catch myself all the time literally stop doing something just to pick and Im just really wanting to dig deeper for answers because I’m not the only one out there who has this uncontrollable impulsive habit.
It’s a relief to know I am not the only one that does this! I always thought I was such a weirdo because if this. I’ve been picking my lip (upper in the middle) for as long as I can remember, since I was a kid. There have been long periods where I have gone without doing it like months at a time but I always end up back doing it randomly. This time it’s been non stop. It’s like an OCD thing. I keep picking and picking and I have to make sure the skin feels smooth and even, I have to get every little bit of skin, and if I try to stop it like bothers me until I start doing it again. It drives me absolutely crazy. My biggest shame is that my daughter had started doing it :( I try to explain to her she needs to leave it alone but she still does it (she’s 5) it’s like I get satisfaction from picking it until it bleeds. Ugh idk what to do either to stop it! So I’m right here with you! I always am embarrassed because it obviously leaves a very noticeable red cut in my lip. The picture is gross but this is seriously what it’s like.